Began work on the F-623 corner ribs - 1.5 hours

Now that everything was match drilled, I flipped the assembly and began to figure out the F-623 corner ribs. I need to trim these as they need a little extra TLC being that there are shared from the older non-drilled/raw RV-6 parts. Of course I want to be careful and not trim to much, so I took a conservative approach. Check three times, and mark.



 

Match drilled the F-776 skin - 2 hours

Just mindless match drilling of the F-776 skin. I started front to back, skipped every other hole. Then once I was done on the first pass, I caught every other outstanding hole on the second pass.
 

Cleco'd the F-776 skin to the center section - 3 hours

I struggled to get the F-776 bottom skin onto the centre section. I tired a couple times to get it cleco'd working front to back, but the holes were just too off when transitioning aft of the F-705 bulkhead. I then disassembled and tried starting in the middle at F-705 but when I got to the F-704  center section assembly, the holes were again too off. I double checked my assembly, the F-916 spacers were in.

The issue I seemed to be having is that the radius of the F-716 seat ribs is not tight enough and this is reflected in the fit of the ribs to the F-704 center section. The holes do not line up by themselves, however with some hand pressure they line up.
 
I need to figure a way of squeezing this up.

After some head scratching I thought of clecoing the top row and bottom row first...this will help evenly squeeze the assembly as I celco'd row by row to the middle. As I started, the middle of the skin was a bit proud off of the F-705 bulkhead as the tight skin wanted to bow the structure the opposite way.

After a few more rows of cleco's, holes were starting to line up very well. Still tight, but much better than they were. So I clecoed the middle rows.

And just like that, the skin went on. Whew!

Devinyled the F-776 centre section bottom skin - 2 hours

Pretty self explanatory. I de-vinyled the F-776 center section bottom skin on the kitchen table...in front of the TV. A tedious process but needed. At least it's not frustrating.

Assembled/Cleco'd the center section frame - 1.5 hours

I was eager to get the center section assembly together to see how it all fit and looked. As well, by putting the seat and baggage panels helped me to visualize how I was going to make the panels removable.

Flutted the F-716 ribs - 1.5 hours

An easy day today....again.

I straightened and flutted the flanges on the F-716 ribs.

Modified the F-716 ribs for the control access - 1.5 hours

Small day today on the build, I cut the two (2) F-716 ribs for the removable piece that allows installation of the stick controls. I used the band saw to make the cuts and then used the sanding station to clean things up. A final run through with the 3M wheel cleaned it all up.




Although a small build day, it was a heavy research day. First I needed to figure out how may F-716 seat ribs I wanted to modify to allow Stick control access. The plans indicate two, however many folks modify four. I finally settled on only doing 2 ribs...I can always easily modify the other 2 ribs at a later date if I hit a brick wall down the road.

As well, I decided very early on that I wanted to make removable baggage panels but had no idea what was involved. Yesterday I sent off an email to Van's just to get things on record for my build and to ask about #8 vs #6 screws if I did the removable baggage panels. But today I had to figure out process, configuration and counts. There is not a whole lot of information out there on how to do this but with enough research I see WireJock's RV7 page gives a good idea of what he's done. I will try to document my process a little better to answer all the questions I had. Basically I decided to follow wirejock's plan and use countersunk screws for everything aft (and including) the F-705 bulkhead. Everything forward of F-705 will be standard screws.